Winterwatch?

Live and learn, did not know they did this, and that they had their young for so long, but they are big birds.
Always love to see, don’t know why, just like them I guess :o))
If you get a photo of the young please do post it, never seen one, amazingly enough.
God nat, sov godt ;o)))

Hi Monica! Is the snow still there? That was some storm! Feels like spring here - the sun is out and the snow's all gone for now ....... only problem is that it's quite cold :-( Freezing during the night, around 1°C now. Looks very nice through the window though ;-(

Resin - your mahonia and helleborus flowers are beautiful. Spring sure comes early there! Love the wood pigeon - very pretty :-)

Hi Rannveig :o)))

Is it windy as well? That really makes it worse!

The snow is smelting again, a shame as I was quite enjoying it.
But yesterday was it terrible everywhere was awfully slippery, even my dog had problems standing his ground, and he has 4 legs LOL . The lights went out for 10 min, so there was no internet, now there is a real tragedy LOL
The bad thing is that many people got hurt, they went driving around instead of staying home.

Heard it was -30°C in Latvia a couple of days ago . . . Ouch!

Resin

-30C!!! I can`t even imagine how cold that feels! At -10 I feel like dying of cold.

I went for a wander round the garden today,(first time properly for weeks I'm sorry to say) and was really surprised at what was up and flowering.

I have Abutilons on my North facing patio that have flowered non-stop through the winter, a Melianthus has for the first time ever just coming into flower? (this has never happened ever in the summer even!)
and when I looked at the flower bed right at the top of the garden, the cannas are coiming up through, and about 6" tall already.

Bees were buzzing around, ladybirds crawling over the plants...a blackbird chirping threateningly at me, guess he thought he had sole rights to the top garden after being deserted for so long!

But, boy did it feel good to be out there again, even if the amount of work that needed doing looks posatively overwhelming...........

the abutilons flowering away, still.............

Melianthus coming into flower for the first time ever

Amazing! My cannas are in pots, this year I hope to get some in the ground, They were growing until we had a hard frost in February, until then the Fuchsias were budding too. I can see some shoots starting again on those, but they lost all their leaves and would normally lose their stems too.

I lost my Abutilon megapotanicum var. after last winter, left it outside for the first time, this winter it would have been OK! It did flower in the greenhouse early in the year.

I have a Melianthus major which has been in a pot in the greenhouse for years, needless to say it hasn't thrived but does seem to have spread it's root base, it's not suppposed to be very hardy here. It has survived a lot of cold and hard frosts, but when I decide to put these things in the ground we have a hard winter and they die! Mine of course hasn't flowered either, maybe they need a mild winter to produce flowers. Your leaves don't look blue like mine, is it another species? They flower in the spring, grow in winter.

http://www.plantzafrica.com/plantklm/melianthusmajor.htm

It was really spring like yesterday, I got some more tidying up done. It felt really pleasant, today started well then dark clouds came over, but this afternoon improved and the sun shone again. I managed to mix some compost and planted bulbs I got recently, I really wanted to stay out but used the compost, wore myself out, and the sun was going down! So many days cold, then you want to do everything at once. I have a lot to do..

There was a couple of bumble bees around yesterday, not the first time I have seen them, and a Red Admiral was darting around, it fed on Aubretia.

Thanks for the link , learnt quite a bit from that.

Mine started off a darker colour, but it turned paler, almost gold over winter, i had assumed that it was to do with the temperature, maybe not. I see from the link that you can take cuttings, unfortunately all my tips have flower s on, so maybe I'll have to wait for the seeds (if they form that is)

With the cannas.I wasn't sure whether to cut down the old stems or not as they seemed to be bursting into life again, but decided to go for it anyway. My sister-in-law told me that she planted hers in a bog garden, and they grew huge, my soil is very light and free draining, perhaps I need to water them, a bit more as they only grow to about 4-5ft tall, I was hoping for about 8ft like the ones I see in pictures, or maybe they need a bit more umph in the soil? manure maybe? The ones I have in pots grow smaller thanm that, but seem to flower earlier than the ones in the soil.

I just love this time of year, when everything is fresh and new, and you see new things coiming through all the time,(especially the blessed celendines!!...) Every year I find plants coming through that I forgot were there, or I'd planted the year before and couldn't quite remember where.

I just hope that we don't get a cold spell now that knocks it all back, not that you can do anything about that anyway...

The problem is with all this merging of seasons is that the things that you do at certain times of year no longer seem to apply, and I'm never sure if I should be doing these things or not now.

I say go with the flow! If the time feels right then you should do whatever seems to need doing. As things start to sprout, cut off the dead, the plant will be ready to grow. If the weather turns now it can't be that bad, not to hard frosts anyway.

Your Cannas are most likely not tall growing types, or does your sister-in-law have the same ones? Cannas do like to be moist but not waterlogged in cold weather, there are some water varieties. Some good compost will certainly help them.

C. musifolia is a tall grower, the cultivar Grande has red edges, I have got that this year and it should be hardy, I will take some off as insurance (says she who left her Ensete ventricosum in the ground to go to mush!) . C. altensteinii I grew from seed is new from Africa, it got fairly tall last year, at least 7 feet in it's second year, but it's supposed to be tender and in the right conditions can grow to 15'. I took some new shoots off, but left the main plant outside in a pot, it was sending up a new shoot until the hard frost, I think it will grow still but it took -5C with no bother.

I have a lot of Hemerocallis in pots that were romping away too until the hard frost, they now look yellow but will recover, but for one frost many plants would have been months ahead now!

My Melianthus has more than one stem, it sends up shoots so when yours has finished flowering you could perhaps take some off with roots if you have any. The leaves smell of peanut butter, they say it's unpleasant but I find it only slightly bitter smelling, quite a surprise when you brush past it. What a surprise having flowers though!

It is spring again today, so lovely, I pulled a few weeds while walking around the garden, the sun on my back was heavenly! I have to do the shopping today, darn!

I've had a lovely holiday in Madeira enjoying the warmth and seeing all the plants that are tender here flowering happily up mountainsides, sprawling over walls (the plants not me!) and generally flourishing everywhere.

It has been a treat to come back to nice sunshine here and I've been busy potting up seedlings and planting things out in the greenhouse border. Like you I've had a nice stroll round the garden and am feeling rather overwhelmed with all the tidying up that needs doing.

I had a nice surprise before I went away, when a woman came to the door with an aerial photo of my garden taken last June. All the paths were tidy, the garden dug, potatoes, peas, beans and everything else growing beautifully and my new herb bed looking very neat. It will be a nice reminder that for a short while I am actually in control of the garden - only briefly though as it tends to get away from me by the end of July and go rampant.

I'm hoping that we get an early spring, but common sense is telling me that it is probably just a taster and some more cold weather is on the way.

I'm glad that I'm not the only person who feels at times that the garden has control over me...instead of the other way around!

Doesn't it feel good at those rare moments when it's all neat and tidy....then it justs romps away , and before you know it nature has won again!...ah well, guess that half the fun.

I keep trying to persuede hubby that it'd be worth while getting someone in for a few hours each month to do the jobs like hedge trimming, tackilng brambles etc, as he detests gardening ( but he does like the end results and showing it off) We're not well off, but I think that what little time he has away from work could be better used, relaxation wise for him that is, and it saves me having to nag him non-stop to get things done...

We had one of those photos done, and all I could see was a line full of washing flapping in the wind, a rug covered in toys spread all around the lawn (grandchildren must have been down) not a pretty sight, and one that I'd want on my wall.

Like you I think that this is maybe the lull before the storm.

Sue - I've actually recently had that same idea - same problem here with hubby. He hates gardening and feels I spend far too much time in the garden and I hate nagging him to help me with the things that I can't manage on my own ........ it would make life so much easier to hire someone to take care of it wouldn't it?

It was a wonderful spring-like day today - spent a few hours outside shredding branches ...... felt good to see the huge mound that had piled up shrink :-)

I'm sure that spring certainly isn't here to stay yet - we have plenty of cold-spells coming our way but it sure is nice while it lasts :-)

The thought of getting a strong young gardener has entered my head too - one tall enough to reach things without having to balance on ladders. I'll have to mention it to my partner - it might spur him on to help me a bit more!!!

Winter is back. Got caught in a hail storm while letting the hens out this morning and we've had sunshine, sleet and snow every few minutes all morning. It was going to be a gardening day, but it will have to wait.

The peach tree and almond are covered in pink blossom and looking a bit out of place in the horrible weather.

The chaffinches moved back into the garden in large numbers yesterday confirming the bad weather forecast and have been proved right once again by today's weather.

On the subject of birds, the Long tailed tits must have been roosting in a rather cramped place last night as they have come to the feeders this morning with designer looking curled up tail feathers. They look really funny.

We have the same, just had a heaver shower of a mix of wet, sleet, hail, whatever. The winds have been really strong since last night. The clouds are pretty though. The 10 day forecast not so long ago, coming from the RAF station nearby, was giving us 11-12C, now a lot of 7C. Why do they bother?

I saw a chaffinch a few days ago. There was a bird with a fluffy white breast sat on the fuchsia under the window yesterday but I didn't see it, it might have been a wagtail of some sort but there are lots of little birds I found that it could have been, it had darker wings but no black on the breast.

My Apricot tree has got a lot of blossom this year, hoping for more than one fruit! It is only 2 years from planting though.

Gardening has come to a standstill, the warmer weather has started a lot of seeds into growing but I wanted to get more sown. The fuchsias got knocked back by the hard frost in February, just started to grow again. The crocus and snowdrops didn't last long, last year they went on forever with the cold spring.

I think my tits have abandoned the nest box, woodpeckers are around every day, they have made the hole bigger. I need more boxes, plus a woodpecker box! They must be expanding their territory, the Green Woodpeckers I have seen a few times as well as the Great Spotted, there is a colony in the grounds behind us, I found out there has been a conservation study done there.

Thanks Resin, I did wonder if they had started their nest, they have been paired up for several weeks now, but I haven't seen them gathering nesting material. They are regular visitors to the feeders now so it is lovely to see them.

Winter ended today, didn't it?

So peachy dale! NO, winter didn't end, but oday is feeling much nicer than yesterday. I would go as far as to say it's pleasant at 8C with sun and not so cold winds!

Yesterday was 4C, some sun off and on but NE winds, some slinging snow, wind chill to -3C!